Intense Records: An Intense History of Christian Metal (1992)

I received this compilation as a throw-in when I bought yesterday's subject, the Original Sin album.  I can only surmise that the seller was concerned about my immortal soul and decided to try to turn me on to some Christian metal.  Well, I am not close-minded so I figured I would give this thing a shot.  I don't have a problem with Christian metal really, if the music is good.  Unfortunately that is often tough to find.  The big problem with Christian metal, and Christian music in general, is that often the message outweighs the musical ability.  So will that be true of these bands?  We will see.  This could go really poorly for me.

Here we go.

TOURNIQUET: "You Get What You Pray For"

Tourniquet is one of the few bands on this compilation that I was aware of previously.  I had a friend in high school that had a couple of their albums.  They struck me as okay, but not really anything special, but at least they were not terrible.  I have not heard them since, so I was actually kind of interested to revisit them.  The song features a decent speed metal riff, but the vocals are pretty terrible, particularly during the chorus, and this is one of those songs that hits you in the face with the message.  So no, I did not particularly care for my second time around hearing this band.

DELIVERANCE: "Weapons of Our Warfare"

This one on the other hand is pretty decent.  The song is sort of a heavy thrash metal song, something akin to early Testament.  The vocals are high-pitched and soaring, with some impressive blood-curdling shrieks.  They are somewhat reminiscent of a combination of Joey Belladonna and Tom Araya's early work with Slayer.  I could see checking this band out further honestly.  This is pretty good.

VENGEANCE: "Mulligan's Stew"

Vengeance is a band that I think I have heard of, but there are likely several other bands called "Vengeance" out there.  The music kind of has a dirty, sleazy hard rock vibe, particularly with the kind of whiskey-soaked vocal style the singer uses.  It is kind of an odd mix for a band that is very clearly Christian.  The guitar solo makes it somewhat interesting, but the vocals kind of grate after awhile and the song just sort of ends.  Not really my cup of tea.

MAGDALLAN: "Dome of the Rock"

This one fucking sucks.  I suppose it is trying to capitalize on the softer rock that Extreme hit it big with, you know "More Than Words" and "Hole-Hearted".  There is a little bit of a James LaBrie tone to the vocals.  But man, when that chorus kicks in, I just want to turn the damn thing off.  This is terrible.  And as bad as that is, the a capella part is significantly worse.  This thing just keeps getting worse with each section.

SACRED WARRIOR: "Obsessions"

Sacred Warrior's song reminds me a lot of mid-period Queensryche.  Not super-heavy, but with some undeniably metal riffs and high-pitched crooning vocals that call to mind Geoff Tate.  The music is more of a progressive metal with a decent guitar solo.  The vocals are clearly the star here though.  This is not too bad really.  

ANGELICA: "Cover Me"

Oh God!  My ears!  I suppose the best comparison I can come up with here is that this band is trying hard to be Cinderella.  Kind of a blues-based hard rock band, but this is really horrible.

RANSOM: "Exit (Euthanasia)"

And we keep getting worse.  Honestly this sounds like a really bad karaoke version of a hair band.  The music just has a very sterile feel to it and the vocals are really high in the mix.  It's almost muzak.  Yikes.  

MORTIFICATION: "Journey of Reconciliation"

Mortification is another band I was familiar with.  They are somewhat infamous for being a Christian death metal band, if one can truly believe that.  Their first couple of albums are often cited as Christian metal done right, but they became something of a parody of themselves in later years.  I had never actually heard them before.  It is fairly simplistic death metal, sort of in the vein of Obituary, but without the swampy feel to the riffs.  The vocals are reasonably gruff.  This sounds more like the kind of thing a young band just starting out would record.  It's not bad, it's just kind of amateurish and simple.

DELIVERANCE: "Victory"

Okay, after the last several songs, I am excited to be getting back to Deliverance.  This is their second appearance on the compilation, one of three bands to appear twice.  This is a song from their first album upon doing some cursory research.  And this song once again impressed with a militant Slayer-esque riff to start things off.  I really do think I like this band.  

MORTAL: "If Ever Maria..."

Oh for fuck's sake.  I think this band was going for a Nine Inch Nails/Ministry industrial sound, but the electronic equipment sounds so fucking cheap.  This reminds me more of the Friends episode where Ross finds his keyboard and starts playing at the coffee shop and his music is just this random collection of sound effects.  Yep, this is that bad.

RANDY ROSE: "Black Harvest"

Like the Angelica song, the vocals are way too high in the mix and the music here sounds like just a backing track.  I kind of get what they are trying for, more of a heavy stoner/doom sound, but it just does not come across really well.  Rose has Danzig-lite vocals that might sound better with a more convincing band.  

BLOODGOOD: "Battle of the Flesh"

I think I have heard of Bloodgood before.  This has 1980's style speed metal written all over it, with a hard-hitting riff and wailing vocals.  I kind of like it really.  Apparently this band went to more of a hard rock sound later, but if the rest of their early material sounds like this, they are not too bad.  

TOURNIQUET: "Psycho Surgery"

Here is Tourniquet again.  This song sounds more like an attempt to jump on the progressive/technical thrash metal wave with notably non-Christian bands like Heathen and Atheist.  I kind of dig the chorus this time around.  I think this was on the album my friend had and in general I much prefer it to the first song by this band on the compilation.

SHOUT: "Give Me an Answer"

This song would have fit in well with the late 1980's hair bands.  It sounds more like a combination of Whitesnake and Poison.  Now I can get behind some hair bands, but not those two and not this one either.  This is pretty bad.

VENGEANCE: "Before the Time"

Vengeance joins Tourniquet and Deliverance as the only bands to appear on this thing twice.  This song is quite a bit different than the last one, taking on more of a hardcore/thrash metal sound.  The vocals are more reminiscent of snotty punk singers, but there are some fast riffs and a decent solo.  I prefer this song to the other one by Vengeance, but I do not think it is enough to check the band out further at this point.

LANNY CORDOLA: "Angry Candy"

And finally we come to the end of this and it is a really painful way to finish it off.  It is an instrumental sort of in the vein of Joe Satriani or Steve Vai, but with numerous samples that give it a very corny feel.  I do not think much of it.

There we have it.  I survived.  I think Deliverance is the only band I would really consider checking out, though maybe Sacred Warrior would be okay.  There was a lot of utter shit on this thing and precious few decent songs.  Safe to say my soul has not been saved by this release.